“Right, mate. It’s your ship, and I won’t argue it. What if we put you back in me cargo bed and try pulling you across? Since I’ve got two hulls, the extra stability would prevent rolling, you’d have the Goliath’s power helping you, and it would spread out the power over a larger surface area.”
The suggestion sparked an idea. “Let’s take it one step further. Let’s use the ravine to get you deeper underneath me. Your bows are rakish, and you could press them up against the ravine’s near side and lower your bed deeper below me.”
Cahill nodded. “I see your point. I could very well get you deeper into me cargo bed than last time, but I don’t see it making enough of a difference. You’d still be too heavy up front to rotate you back, I’m afraid.”
“One of our ideas was to pump air into the forward ballast tanks to make us lighter up front while you load us again. If we combine that with you digging in deep, it might work.”
“Yeah, mate. It might.” The Australian’s voice trailed off. “Wait. You don’t mean blowing them dry with high-pressure air?”
“No. I don’t want to announce ourselves to the world. It would be with our divers running hoses carrying hundred-pound air under the bottom grates.”
The Goliath’s commander furrowed his eyebrows. “I’m not sure one hundred pounds per square inch is enough. I’m doing the math in me head, and I think you’d be a bit short.”
“Correction — I should’ve specified. We’re using our hundred-pound line but adjusting the reducer to bring the pressure up to one-twenty. My auxiliary division assures me it’s no problem.”
Cahill nodded. “That’ll get the job done, but you can’t get to the grates unless you take a steep angle, or unless you have room underneath your keel.”
“We’ll have a little of both at the ravine.”
“It might work. Yeah… it just might. Good thinking, commander. Brilliant, actually.”
“It’s amazing how sharp the mind can be when your life’s at stake.”
“Right. Let’s do this, but let me first see if I can work meself into position. I don’t want you committing to this until I know I can dig in there. I can back out of this easily. You can’t.”
While he trusted the Australian to maneuver the Goliath, Causey returned to the brainstorming session and examined the green writing his second-in-command had added to the whiteboard. “Looks like you got the top ten identified, XO.”
“Just as you ordered, sir, with pros and cons for the top ten.”
“Good job, but cut to the chase. Which one do you recommend?”
The executive officer blushed. “I’ve been gathering input from the crew, sir, running it like a think tank. I was waiting for you to return to order the ideas by priority.”
“Understood.” Causey ushered his second-in-command to the privacy behind the whiteboard and the refrigeration unit that served as an ad hoc wall. He lowered his voice. “But you need to have your own opinion.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Well?”
“I… uh.”
“This isn’t a drill, XO. I need your answer.”
“Well, sir. I kind of got my own idea. Actually, it’s more like an improvement to one of our good ones.”
“Tell me.”
Stiffening his back, the hesitant officer found his courage. “We start with the idea we’ve already shared about taking our maximum down angle and running hoses into our ballast tanks from the hundred-pound air system.”
“Then what? What else have you got?”
“We can do even better, sir, especially while on the down angle. We should also release hundred-pound air into the forward compartment. But we have to be smart about it. We have to calculate the volume so that when we level out again on the Goliath, the air pocket doesn’t fall below the upper edge of the damage to the torpedo room. Otherwise, it’ll send a bubble to the surface. I figure even a few feet of clearance above the hole adds tons of buoyancy.”
Causey frowned.
Shadows forming on his face, his second-in-command mimicked the negative gesture. “What’s wrong, sir? You don’t like it?”
“Maybe. I’m thinking.” In Causey’s mind, the Indiana rotated to its level deck atop the cargo ship. “I can’t be sure. I don’t think anyone can be. We don’t know where our center of mass is versus the fulcrum of the Goliath’s bed. I can’t say if a bubble at the aft bulkhead of the forward compartment helps us or hurts us.”
“Uh, yeah. I see your point, sir. I was thinking about our normal center of mass. Not this situation.”
The conversation generated a new vision for the Indiana’s commander. He chuckled.
“Captain?”
“You were hesitant to share your idea. I can’t tell you if we’ll end up acting on it, but I’ll tell you it was a good one. You’re a smart man, and you could be a good commanding officer if you’d shed your doubts.”
The executive officer’s eyes grew wide. “Sir, I don’t know if now’s a good time for a fitness report.”
“Is it or is it not a good time for a fitness report?”
“I… uh, don’t understand.”
“You said you don’t know. Hell, nobody knows everything all the time, but you know your own opinion, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So, is it or is it not a good time for a fitness report?”
“If you see something I’m doing wrong that needs correcting, then yes. If not, then no. I think you should save it for later, sir.”
Causey nodded slowly. “Good answer. But I disagree, and I’m the captain. So, here it comes. You’ve been carrying yourself through this mess like a naval officer should.”
The executive officer cocked his head.
“Of course, I watch for that sort of thing. I have to. The other officers. The chiefs. The entire crew. If you looked weak or uncertain, it would kill their spirits. But somehow, this mess has erased every shred of doubt you have about yourself except when you’re with me.”
The man frowned and looked downward in thought. “Huh.”
“Maybe you fear authority. Maybe you fear judgment. But based on the way you’ve been walking tall around here, like you’re absolutely certain that you’re going to get the crew home, you sure as hell don’t fear death or failure. The men look at you like a beacon of hope, and I’ve never seen them do that before. Sustain it. Run the rest of your executive officer tour like that, and I’ll end up recommending you for command.”
The man of mediocre stature suddenly seemed taller. “I can do that, sir. I will do it.”
Letting the rebuilt man have the final word, Causey led him back towards the waiting audience. While he walked, he visualized a new concept. “Come on, XO. I’m stealing your idea, but I’ll give you partial credit. Wait until you hear the twisted version of it that just popped into my head. It involves garbage bags.”
Thirty minutes later, Causey stood over the laptops.
Cahill announced his success in positioning his ship. “I’m ready for you, commander. Give it a go.”
Balanced against the deck’s down angle, the Indiana’s commander faced the Australian’s image in the laptop. Having dedicated his divers to tasks of buoyancy, he was blind to his stern’s positioning. “You’ll tell me when to slow, won’t you?”
“Yeah, mate. I’ve got the rover deployed a hundred meters ahead of me. I’ll be following you the whole way in. Can’t see shit yet except your work lights, but I’m streaming the rover’s video.”
The Indiana’s commander tapped the rightmost laptop’s keys to toggle through feeds and invoke a new view. The lights supporting the work area where a pair of divers had rigged air hoses into the accessible ballast tank grates cast a blurry orb. “I see it. I’ll back towards you now.”